Wednesday, July 31, 2013

J and I were back in Cinci in time to celebrate the 4th. His sister had planned a neighborhood children's parade, and even with the rain many patriots came out to ride in the parade, listen to Granny's July 4th story, and consume some All American hot dogs. The few days we were there were a whirlwind - Kings Island where our Christmas photo was taken on Elijah's first roller coaster, Winton Woods where we took a bike ride and bought some ice cream to make up for the fact that we got in free, the Beach water park where Elijah preferred eating his fries for an hour to hitting the water slides, and a historical and architectural tour of the two centuries old Betts House.

On our way home we picked up my nephew who joined us for our trip to Sunset Beach. My sweet neighbor has a trailer in Calabash that she let us use for free! My aunt was just up the beach at Ocean Isle, so we were delighted to get to hang out with her several times as well. Our half week there was filled with sun, surf, creamery ice cream, seafood, and letterboxing. Sunset is my new favorite beach! In order to convince Jamie to keep the tent poles low for more sun coverage, I built stairs to enter our shelter without bending down so much.

Monday, July 8, 2013

My super brave in laws offered to watch our children for three days and two nights so we could have a getaway. I was totally nervous excited since my children are only sometimes always so well behaved. So after a night at the family cabin, we headed west while my babies headed east to Cincinnati. They were well entertained by Jamie's parents and his sister's family. They didn't even miss us!

Since we hadn't had time alone since 14 months into our marriage, we made the most of it. Jamie bought a City Pass on the cheap, and we made the most of it! The first night we took care of our souvenir shopping. Day 2 we missed the first train into the city, but soon hit the SkyDeck to see the city from above. We enjoyed the Chicago subs at Fontanos, then saw as much as possible of the Field Museum of Chicago. (I took tons of pictures of all the exhibits that my home-schooled kids were missing.) The fact that Monsanto sponsored the exhibit on dirt and the importance of all the organisms therein was almost too ironic to keep me walking. It was odd foregoing the kiddie movie and choosing the nature flick, but I quickly got over it. Only the thought of Chicago winters kept me from picking up a job application on the way out.

I convinced J that we needed more time than we had to enjoy Shedd Aquarium, so we booked it over to Adler Planetarium. I tried to pay attention, knowing that we were going to be learning about space in Cycle 2 of Classical Conversations, but I'm not sure how much sunk in. The most interesting part was the movie about Space Junk and the possible chain reactions that could occur. I recommend it HIGHLY over suffering through Sandra Bullock in Gravity.

My tour guide husband had purchased tickets to see the White Sox play. We were not positive about what transportation to take and decided to walk. Let's just say a 4.5 mile walking tour of Chicago ensued. Soldier Field was unlocked, so we imagined da Bears. I was disappointed that we had to book it through Chinatown when I was SO hungry and everything smelled SO good. My darling tour guide made it up to me by standing in line for a foot long Chicago dog while I rested my aching knees and back. It was exciting to see former Red Adam Dunn hit a home run and cheer the Sox on to a victory. Our transportation luck continued as the train station we needed was closed for repairs, and police officers sent us in different directions!

The next day Jamie made the "walk" up to me by paying extra for me to pet the rays, my favorite sea creature, at Shedd Aquarium. They kept swimming up for more love! Jamie loved the belugas, and we both were inspired by the aquatic show. To save my aching legs and enjoy the port, we braved the drizzle to experience the city from the top deck of a water taxi. We hid from the rain by taking a stroll through the Smith Museum of Stained Glass and snacking on some Chicago mix popcorn. (Can you tell most of my vacations revolve around the food?)

To complete our City Pass we took another look at the city from the top of the John Hancock Observatory. Of course we had to grab some pizza from Giordano's, although my daughter cannot understand how we could pass up the American Girl store.

I took the first and longest leg of the Chicago to Cinci late night drive. Just when I was about to slip into drowsiness, I spotted miles of pulsing red lights at roughly the same height of a good alien attack. Although logic whispered that I was likely in the midst of the Indiana wind farms, I had to wake Jamie up because I was so freaked out. Better than caffeine for a wake up! Obviously we made it back in one piece and with a refreshed marriage!

You can click here to see more pics from July and read more about our vacations.

Click here for a funny video of our boxer chasing an arrow on the wall.